I spent a day at a robot “carnival” in Shanghai. Here’s what I saw.

The popular machines are part of the country’s strategy to bring artificial intelligence into daily life. Embedding the technology into physical systems—an idea called embodied AI—was a key facet of China’s latest five-year plan, and companies here are already world leaders in humanoids. Nearly 90% of the more than 13,000 two-armed, two-legged robots delivered globally last year were made in China.

The toy pet is a gift his mom just bought him at a robot “carnival” held by an R&D center on the outskirts of Shanghai, and he can’t stop showing it off to passersby. It’s a public holiday, and curious families are pouring in to the event to see what’s on display. This busy hub houses more than 100 companies that research, develop, manufacture, and market robotic technologies and equipment.

Many build specialized bots of all shapes that can do practical tasks, such as transporting heavy loads or inspecting sewage pipes. Today, however, things are mostly for show. Meters away from where parents and children are queued up to buy the robotic dog, two staffers teach youngsters how to make a quadrupedal robot walk up a flight of stairs.

Farther along, a tense battle breaks out between two remote-controlled robots firing water beads at each other, as boys and girls cheer them on from around a temporary ring. (A staffer declares the duel a draw.) Showcases like this are important, because they invite the public to experience robots up close. Some of China’s most prominent robotics companies are building humanoids. These machines “can free people from physical work and mundane chores,” says Yang Duan, a product manager at DexForce, which is at the carnival exhibiting a model that can make coffee.

A few booths down, a pair of robotic arms attempts to fold a basket of T-shirts. Exposure matters, because elsewhere humanoids’ progress has been slow, marred by safety challenges due to their heft and need to balance on two legs. High prices and short battery life have also limited their appeal.

Plenty of roboticists are skeptical that a human form is the best shape for a robot to take. But Chinese firms are pushing forward and showing off their latest models. As this carnival takes place in Shanghai, shopping malls and tourist attractions in several other Chinese cities host humanoids that perform for crowds.